City Officials Want G-rated Cocoa Beach

December 8, 1985|By John J. Glisch of The Sentinel Staff

COCOA BEACH — When Kent Richens won a seat on the city commission last month his election night victory statement sounded like a warning from Wyatt Earp or Elliot Ness. ''We're going to clean the town up,'' he said. ''We're going to make it look like something.''

If Richens and several other commission members have their way that look will not include adult businesses.

Richens wants them gone. So does Commissioner Arvid ''A. J.'' Dahlquist and Mayor Robert Lawton.

All of them, it seems, have declared a moral war on anything that resembles the bump and grind.

''Adult businesses are a liability to the business community,'' said Lawton. ''They tend to drive away the healthy tourist, the person who shops in the stores, eats in the restaurants and rents a beach umbrella.''

Richens is just as stern.

''I don't like them at all,'' he said. ''They make no positive contribution.''

The men say the reason for their sweep-the-streets-clean attitude stems from results of the November election, in which Dahlquist and Richens captured commission seats by big margins.

They and Lawton termed the election a mandate from voters -- especially the swelling number of elderly people who have growing political clout -- to clean up the community's image.

The first step was changing closing hours for bars and topless lounges from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. last September. The next move appears aimed at trying to shut topless bars, establishments Lawton said will continue to ''feel the heat'' from the commission.

An indication of what methods may be used came the day before Thanksgiving, when police closed the Leather and Lace adult bookstore and charged

1the owner and two employees with violating state racketeering laws.

Dahlquist called the raid just the start of such actions against adult businesses. Meanwhile, Lawton said topless lounges can expect so much undercover work by police that patrons will ''more likely be talking to one of our agents than anybody else. We're their best customers as far as that goes.''

Although the men downplay the increased influence of retirees in their push toward temperance, they sometimes talk about moral standards and the aging of the community in the same breath.

Dahlquist, for instance, said the elderly ''want this to be a nice community in morality and business.'' Lawton also said the city's colorful and occasionally racy past can be preserved without adult businesses ''debasing it'' as more elderly move in.

Still, any moves to run adult businesses out of town will be certain to meet stiff legal resistance every step of the way from owners armed with First Amendment arguments of freedom of expression.

''If somebody wants to go to a piano bar, they can go to a piano bar. If they want to go to a topless bar, they can go to a topless bar. What's the matter with that?'' asked the owner of one topless lounge, who asked not to be identified.

Many in the community feel the same way.

City Commissioner Jack Kuritzky said although he is not ''crazy about'' the topless lounges, ''I think the First

Amendment says you can write what you want and do what you want as long as you don't beat anybody over the head.''

Other longtime Cocoa Beach residents also are distressed at what they view as an attempt by a few elected officials to handcuff the personal actions of residents and tourists alike.

''It's not necessary,'' said Jack Korenblit, a real estate agent active in community affairs for nearly 30 years. ''They are blowing it out of proportion. I'm a free thinker. Any business, as long as they behave, it's their business.''

Al Glover, chairman of a new tourism committee for the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, said, ''There's room for those places as long as they're not abused.''

As for the mandate, Glover didn't give it much credence.

''If that's the case, then they have a mandate to remove all the bars because they're morally offensive to some people too,'' he said.